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Featherstone Rovers may have increased their lead at the top of the Betfred Championship to 10 points, but captain James Lockwood believes the team still sometimes need to play smarter.

Rovers found it tough going on their long trip to play Barrow Raiders and were level at 10-10 at half-time before a strong start to the second half and an improved all-round display after the break ensured they brought back another two points.

“I thought in the second half there were some good defensive efforts, but we’ve got to smarten up where we turn the ball over sometimes,” said long serving skipper Lockwood after the match.

"You can never really question our effort that everyone’s putting in, we just need to smarten up sometimes a bit.

James Lockwood was pleased with the defensive effort from his Featherstone Rovers team, but reckoned they could have played smarter at Barrow. (Photo by Rob Hare)

"You can see the effort when they make breaks and everyone’s chasing back and our goal-line defence.”

Lockwood admitted Featherstone had made it hard for themselves against a Barrow side that showed good spirit on their home patch despite their currently lowly position in the league.

He explained: I think it’s always tough when you come to Barrow, they play well at home and in the last couple of weeks they’ve had some good results.

"But we probably killed ourselves in the first half, we turned too much ball over. You do that, keep them fresh and it’s always going to be a tough day.

"I think we rolled our sleeves up a bit in that last 30 minutes and rolled them. If we had probably started the game like that it would have been a bigger score, but I’m just pleased we toughed it out and we’ve got to learn from it.

"We conceded a couple of tries, but I thought we scrambled well.

“Longy told us all the right stuff to do, it was just a bit of frustration in the first half.

"They were kicking the ball out every time trying to slow it down and we were probably chasing points when we don’t have to.”

Featherstone Rovers go ten points clear at the top of the Championship after Bat...

Conditions did not help Rovers to get into their usual flow with a strong wind blowing down the ground.

Lockwood added "They were getting us off kick-offs and the ball was holding up.

"It was hard to kick out your own end coming into this wind, but it was not too bad in the general play.”

Rovers are without a game this weekend and are next in action in the first of three successive big tests against Yorkshire opposition as they host Batley Bulldogs on Saturday, July 29.

Featherstone Rovers skipper James Lockwood believes runaway leaders can 'smarten up a bit'